Amberley Publishing

As a kid, I longed for a dolls’ house. Growing up in a one-parent family, money was tight and my dream of owning one had to wait several decades – until my forties, to be precise. Some might find it strange to hear of an adult buying a toy, but most collectors of dolls’ houses and miniatures don’t regard dolls’...

Pint and A Walk in the Yorkshire Dales... A long walk and the beacon of a pub goes hand in hand to many of us. Ideas are formed in Inns, conversations become firm plans and locals become friends. It’s also good to put something back into the communities we walk around. 25 Great Walkers' Pubs in the Yorkshire Dales features...

This book begins with a potted history of the construction of the Northern Line and its various stages of expansion I hope you will find as absorbing as I did. The book features thirty-two years of signalling experience from boy to man, experiences like so many others who I was later to befriend, and eventually worked with so many in...

Stuart Britain was a remarkable period in British history – a period which followed fast upon the heels of the ever-popular Tudor dynasty. There is sometimes confusion over the time period and geographical region “Stuart Britain” encompasses. This confusion invariably leads to irrational offense being taken by some who think Scotland is being slighted by what they perceive to be...

The Catholic church of our Lady and the English Martyrs is a major landmark in the city of Cambridge. Completed in 1890 when it was known as the pro-cathedral because of its size, the church was built at the sole expense of a Frenchwoman, Mrs Yolande Lyne Stephens. Countless scandals in Victorian England involved sex; others involved money; and the...

Secret Aberdeen belongs to Amberley Publishing's series on UK towns and cities which tantalises readers with some rare historical delicacies. I did not compile the information for this book under any misconception I was revealing actual secrets but with the intention of bringing to the forefront of public attention people and incidents long forgotten which deserve a higher profile in...

If there is an area of history I excel at it has to be “the obscure”. I can find it a little frustrating at times that the same old stories get trotted out again and again. I regularly peruse bookshops and often think, “oh great ANOTHER book on the Tudors” and that’s not the only topic that gets trotted out...

My first memories of Ghostbusters were that of sheer terror. I was four years old and my parents had taken us to the movie theater to see the original 1984 film. It was like nothing I'd seen before, and while most don't consider it a scary movie, I certainly did. I was stricken with fear by everything from Slimer, the...

On the south side of Waterloo Bridge, not far from the National Theatre, stands the church of St. John. Built early in the Victorian reign of Queen Victoria, when this part of London was slum territory, the barn like interior was designed to accommodate up to two thousand worshippers. Though hard to imagine now, the church was often full to...

Glasgow has a reputation as a city of slums. The reality was far from this popular image. While there were substantial areas of poor housing the creation of fit housing was always to the fore in Glasgow. These are some of the measures taken to alleviate the problem. Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, visited Glasgow in 1707 and...